Mystery infection claims G.R. professor

GRAND RAPIDS -- Students, co-workers and loved ones are stunned by the sudden death of a 46-year-old college professor who lost her life to a fast-spreading mystery infection.

Karen Muyskens died Sunday of septic shock, her family said.

"It's incomprehensible. It's just hard to believe," her husband, Mark Muyskens, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Tuesday.

For the past 20 years, he and his wife shared a chemistry professor position at Calvin College, a private institution affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church. Until about 10 days ago, Karen Muyskens was a seemingly healthy mother of three children who enjoyed hiking and running.

She had gone running the day before stomach pains and vomiting sent her to the emergency room of Spectrum Health's Blodgett Campus in East Grand Rapids, where doctors discovered that a bacteria was spreading through her organs. Her kidneys failed, and dialysis and a ventilator were used to keep her alive until Sunday.

Muyskens' sudden illness and death puzzles her doctors. Her husband said he was told that the pathogens behind such cases are identified only about half the time. "The doctors worked so hard on her," he said. "We're very thankful."

The death has hit the college's faculty hard, too.

"You think, as scientists, we would figure out what happened, but we just don't know," said Larry Louters, chairman of Calvin's chemistry department.

When the Muyskenses came to Calvin, they interviewed for one position because they wanted to have enough time for their family, Louters said. They have three children, ranging in age from 8 to 15.

"They were able to maintain their commitment to the college, to each other and to their church," he said.